Modern life finds family members and loved ones often separated by great distances. Modern technology has made communication very convenient, and toll free numbers and automated order-taking services have made gift purchasing very convenient, especially when the recipient is far away. However, it has also resulted in gift giving having lost much of its personal, creative and romantic aspects. The modern gift giver may never touch or even see the gift he sends. The gift may be selected from a catalog, or flowers may be ordered from a group of "standard" arrangements. Also, a personal message delivered with a gift may be written by a retailer on a stock card and delivered by a total stranger. It would be highly desirable to restore the excitement and personal involvement in giving a gift, without reintroducing all of the inconveniences eliminated by modern order-taking technologies.
Towards this end, Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,698 teaches that a greeting card be provided with voice synthesizing circuitry. This circuitry receives a pre-recorded solid state memory chip which contains a digitally encoded voice message that may be played back. In accordance with this patent, the gift giver calls an answering machine at a central location and records his message. Personnel at the central location then encode the recorded voice message in digital form and record the encoded message on the memory chip, which is subsequently inserted into the circuitry of the greeting card.
The system disclosed in the Johnson et al. patent, although it may be adequate for use at the point of purchase, has a number of serious shortcomings. First of all, it requires a substantial amount of handling of a memory chip on which a message has been recorded. This is undesirable, because electronic chips are subject to being damaged by handling, particularly as a result of static electricity, and the recorded message may accidentally be impaired or lost. Also, the system requires the assembly of the memory chip to the circuitry within the card, and this process is subject to errors, which can result in the failure of the recorded message to playback and, possible, in damage to the equipment.
Furthermore, the system of the Johnson et al. patent requires the voice message to be recorded on the memory chip at the location of the answering machine. In accordance with modern order-taking systems, the gift giver would typically call a local number or an "800" number in order to purchase a gift. On the other hand, the fulfillment of the gift order would typically occur at a location close to the recipient, at a "fulfillment" center, and the fulfillment center would typically be remote from both the gift giver and the location of the answering machine. It would therefore be necessary to transport the recorded memory chip from the location of the answering machine to the location of the fulfillment center. This not only involves undesirable delay and the additional cost of transportation, but could result in damage to the chip during transportation. Accordingly, the system of the Johnson et al. patent is not a feasible one for use in conjunction with modern order-taking systems.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a voice message keepsake and a system for recording the same, which do not suffer from the shortcomings of known keepsakes and systems of this type. It is specifically contemplated that the voice message keepsake and system of the present invention should not require handling or transportation of delicate integrated circuit chips and should be capable of convenient use in conjunction with modern order-taking systems.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system for recording voice message keepsakes which would permit the customer to record a voice message at a first location and would further permit the voice message to be recorded on the voice message keepsake at a second location remote from the first location.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a voice message keepsake and a system for producing the same which are reliable and convenient in use, yet relatively inexpensive, so that a voice message keepsake may be added to a gift, without appreciably increasing the cost of the gift.
In accordance with the present invention, a system for producing voice message keepsakes includes a message processor which may be accessed over a plurality of communication links, such as telephone lines. The processor may be so accessed by means of a customer's communication set, such as a conventional telephone set, or by means of a subscriber set, and it is capable of distinguishing the two. When accessed by a customer's set, the processor permits the caller to create a temporary mailbox associated with his gift purchase, in which he may then record a voice message. When called by a subscriber'set, the processor permits previously created mailboxes to be accessed and will transfer the message recorded therein to the subscriber set. The subscriber set includes a receptacle for receiving a voice message keepsake in accordance with the present invention, and it will record thereon stored messages provided from the message processor, under control of the message processor.
A voice message keepsake in accordance with the present invention includes an integrated circuit which is a single chip voice message system. In the preferred embodiment, this voice message system permits recordation and playback of messages under the power of a battery which is included on the same circuit board as the chip, and a miniature speaker included on the circuit board permits the voice message to be heard. The voice message keepsake retains the recorded message in non-volatile form, and the entire voice message keepsake is contained in a housing which encloses the circuit board. An edge of the circuit board protrudes from this housing and permits the voice message keepsake to be plugged into a subscriber set. However, once the voice message is recorded, the protruding contact portion may be cut or broken away.